---
title: Log traces to a specific project
sidebarTitle: Log traces to a specific project
---

You can change the destination project of your traces both statically through environment variables and dynamically at runtime.

## Set the destination project statically

As mentioned in the [Tracing Concepts](/langsmith/observability-concepts#projects) section, LangSmith uses the concept of a `Project` to group traces. If left unspecified, the project is set to `default`. You can set the `LANGSMITH_PROJECT` environment variable to configure a custom project name for an entire application run. This should be done before executing your application.

```
export LANGSMITH_PROJECT=my-custom-project
```

<Warning>
The `LANGSMITH_PROJECT` flag is only supported in JS SDK versions >= 0.2.16, use `LANGCHAIN_PROJECT` instead if you are using an older version.
</Warning>

If the project specified does not exist, it will be created automatically when the first trace is ingested.

## Set the destination project dynamically

You can also set the project name at program runtime in various ways, depending on how you are [annotating your code for tracing](/langsmith/annotate-code). This is useful when you want to log traces to different projects within the same application.

<Note>
Setting the project name dynamically using one of the below methods overrides the project name set by the `LANGSMITH_PROJECT` environment variable.
</Note>

<CodeGroup>

```python Python
import openai
from langsmith import traceable
from langsmith.run_trees import RunTree

client = openai.Client()
messages = [
  {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
  {"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}
]

# Use the @traceable decorator with the 'project_name' parameter to log traces to LangSmith
# Ensure that the LANGSMITH_TRACING environment variables is set for @traceable to work
@traceable(
  run_type="llm",
  name="OpenAI Call Decorator",
  project_name="My Project"
)
def call_openai(
  messages: list[dict], model: str = "gpt-4o-mini"
) -> str:
  return client.chat.completions.create(
      model=model,
      messages=messages,
  ).choices[0].message.content

# Call the decorated function
call_openai(messages)

# You can also specify the Project via the project_name parameter
# This will override the project_name specified in the @traceable decorator
call_openai(
  messages,
  langsmith_extra={"project_name": "My Overridden Project"},
)

# The wrapped OpenAI client accepts all the same langsmith_extra parameters
# as @traceable decorated functions, and logs traces to LangSmith automatically.
# Ensure that the LANGSMITH_TRACING environment variables is set for the wrapper to work.
from langsmith import wrappers
wrapped_client = wrappers.wrap_openai(client)
wrapped_client.chat.completions.create(
  model="gpt-4o-mini",
  messages=messages,
  langsmith_extra={"project_name": "My Project"},
)

# Alternatively, create a RunTree object
# You can set the project name using the project_name parameter
rt = RunTree(
  run_type="llm",
  name="OpenAI Call RunTree",
  inputs={"messages": messages},
  project_name="My Project"
)
chat_completion = client.chat.completions.create(
  model="gpt-4o-mini",
  messages=messages,
)
# End and submit the run
rt.end(outputs=chat_completion)
rt.post()
```

```typescript TypeScript
import OpenAI from "openai";
import { traceable } from "langsmith/traceable";
import { wrapOpenAI } from "langsmith/wrappers";
import { RunTree} from "langsmith";

const client = new OpenAI();
const messages = [
  {role: "system", content: "You are a helpful assistant."},
  {role: "user", content: "Hello!"}
];

const traceableCallOpenAI = traceable(async (messages: {role: string, content: string}[], model: string) => {
  const completion = await client.chat.completions.create({
      model: model,
      messages: messages,
  });
  return completion.choices[0].message.content;
},{
  run_type: "llm",
  name: "OpenAI Call Traceable",
  project_name: "My Project"
});

// Call the traceable function
await traceableCallOpenAI(messages, "gpt-4o-mini");

// Create and use a RunTree object
const rt = new RunTree({
  run_type: "llm",
  name: "OpenAI Call RunTree",
  inputs: { messages },
  project_name: "My Project"
});
await rt.postRun();

// Execute a chat completion and handle it within RunTree
rt.end({outputs: chatCompletion});
await rt.patchRun();
```

</CodeGroup>
